Comments on: TSS: Halfway Through the Year of Reading Deliberately

By: Amanda

Amanda — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:15:51 +0000

I just look through my tbr pile and choose the book that most fits my mood that moment. Sometimes I’m in a mood for a short paranormal romance, other times I’m in the mood for a long hardcore scifi book. If you’ve been picking a lot of short books lately, maybe that’s just what you’re in the mood for. But don’t ever let your reading turn into a chore for the blog!

By: Andi

Andi — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:07:30 +0000

It’s been a free-wheeling year for me. Very deliberate in making choices that I really WANT TO READ. Going with my mood is really the only sure way to keep me out of a slump. And we all know a slump is a fate worse than death.

Good luck with the next half of the year!

By: Beth F

Beth F — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:53:37 +0000

Every time I come up with a plan, I fail. So I simply list tour books and book club books in my calendar and wing the rest of it. There is no rhyme or reason to my reading list.

By: Stephanie

Stephanie — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 12:17:03 +0000

It is such a hard balance! Unfortunately, I am on the opposite end as you are–I find myself reading WAY too many library books and leaving my review copies and personal books in the dust. I have tried to be more methodical recently about which books I read and from where, but it never ends up working!

By: heidenkind

heidenkind — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:36:33 +0000

Whatever pops into my head is what I read. That usually works pretty well. Sometimes I try to ignore it, and wind up reading utter dreck.

By: zibilee

zibilee — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:52:52 +0000

It sounds like you are at least somewhat successful at keeping your goals, so maybe just a step up in what you are doing will work. I have a lot of review books to read, and that mostly dictates my reading schedule, but every once in awhile, I come across something that I must read now, and I put everything else aside to get to it. I really have to do that more often though, and read more of my own choices. I know how hard it can be to read deliberately at times.

By: Marie

Marie — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 04:27:48 +0000

I choose what to read next by what makes me want to the cry the most about how backlogged I am on reviews! Sad but true.

By: Alyce

Alyce — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:23:15 +0000

For me it depends if I have a review copy that I need to read at the time. I usually request 2 or 3 review copies a month, and rotate in books from the library and books from my shelf. Those that I read from the library or my shelf are usually random choices – whatever I’m in the mood for. Whenever I look at my shelves I find things that I want to read right now, but make myself wait since I’ve usually already got several books going at one time.

I know what you mean about long books though. I started reading Shogun by James Clavell while on vacation, and although I’m 150 pages into it I really don’t like it so far. I feel bad judging it without continuing on, since it’s 1200 pages long. But really, should I suffer through 1200 pages if it’s that way all the way through? I intend to read at least 50 more pages before I make up my mind about it.

By: Marg

Marg — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 03:12:30 +0000

I have a spreadsheet where I list the books I have out from the library with the due dates, any review books that have to be read by a certain date, and any books that I have said that I will have read by that time, and that pretty much determines what I read next. I am trying to be a little more selective in terms of review books but you just know that when other people start reviewing books that you will regret not accepting at least some of them.

Good luck with the rest of your year of reading deliberately.

By: Daphne

Daphne — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 22:40:33 +0000

A couple of years ago I put all of the books I owned and haven’t read yet into a spreadsheet in the order I planned to read them. I even color coded it so that books about the same person or time period are spread out. As I get new books, they get entered into the spreadsheet – review books get placed in a spot that’s about where in the list I should be during the month they have to be reviewed. Books that I buy are mixed in throughout so that they aren’t all at the top of the list but they aren’t all at the bottom either. It seems to work…

For the most part, I only accept one review book a month – I do make certain exceptions if the books are really high on my “want” list but I’ve only have a few months this year where that’s planned.